Sister Madsen loves dogs and is a memeber of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She has been called to serve as a missionary in the Illinois Chicago West Mission

Thursday, August 25, 2016

This is what dreams are made of Aug 15, 2016

Hey now

how is everyone??? I AM DOING GREAT. No joke. I am so happy. this lastweek has been so fun! My new companions are the greatest and Freeportitself is just amazing and I am in love. There used to be a bigpretzel factory here so the high school and news papers and everythinghave some sort of pretzel mascot or theme even though the factory gotshut down years ago. its the greatest. And everyone here is so nice!and just always sitting outside on their porch so we talk to soooomany people whenever we go out tracting. I love itMy companions!!!!! So now I am in a trio which has been a dream sincethe beginning of the mission because trios are just cool. and I amserving with Sister Turner who is from Ogden and is probably the mostmissionary missionary there ever was. In a good way. You know how somepeople are just born natural athletes? I think this sista was born anatural missionary. its been so nice to be able to serve with her andlearn from her. And she is so normal. this might not make sense but itjust calms me down because there are some really great missionariesthat I've been able to serve around but a lot of them have been reallyintense and it just stresses me out and makes me feel like the onlyway I can be a good missionary is if I am crazy but Sister Turner ischill and she is an awesome missionary. I love her. My other newcompanion is Sister Peterson who is from -get this- Alpine. and getthis, she went to Lone Peak. and get this, she went to Utah state. andget this, we have never met before. This makes a total of 4 people whoI went to school with before the mission. Weird. granted she graduateda year after than me but its still crazy that we have never talked toeach other or anything because we knew a lot of the same people. whichis a real shame because I LOVE HER.As a trio we are all reallysimilar and get a long really well. we were definitely friends in thepreexistence. and we will definitely be friends after the mission. Ireally hope none of us get transferred but the likelihood of that isslim. Sister Turner has been here in Freeport for three transfersalready and she has been training Sister Peterson for two of them. sothey will probably get separated so that Sister Peterson can try outmissionary life without her trainer. So I might be the one who greeniebreaks her. who knows.. Heavenly Father probably.... but not me.anyways if I hadn't been told that Sister Peterson was in training Iwouldn't have known it because she is already a A+ missionary andknows everything. She is great. We are all guessing that Sister Turnerleaves since she has been here the longest and then Sister Petersonand I stay. We find out on Saturday so we will see. I really hope Istay though, because #1 Freeport has become my missionary heaven and Ilove it here and #2 I really do not want to to pack everything upagain.I'll pray!

anyways a little bit more about the area, Freeport is out in theboonies and our stake is right next to the Davenport stake (helloCheryl). the Freeport ward itself is about three times as big as thestake that I was just over in Schaumburg. It is a lot of cornfields,soy beans, and farm land. as well as a down town area in the middlewhich is kind of projects-y. its an interesting combination of peopleat church but I love it! AND amazing news, I am poaching on theseSisters Baptism that they are having this Saturday. a recent covertnamed Judy moved here in July sometime and wants FOUR of her kids aregetting baptized. and THEY ARE THE CUTEST. I will send a picture.Their names are Roschea, Keynora, LaShay, and Malichi. they are thelight of my world. I've already taught them 3 times in this past weekand they are just so fun. I definitely missed seeing kids runningaround while I was in the YSA. but anyways yeah I am excited for thesekids, they are so awesome and all of them were yelling and some werecrying when they all passed their baptism interviews. so tender. Thisarea is really good and these sisters have been doing a great jobtaking care of it and working with the ward and reactivating people aswell. we have a couple teaching appointments everyday so we are reallybusy! but its still pretty easy to find people to talk to in ourdowntime.

this update is really long so I'll end it soon, but I just wanted toleave you with a lil testimony that God answers prayers. I havelearned this time and time again. BUT ITS TRUE. and it is almostalways in a way and a time that you don't see coming. I never expecteda prayer that I said at the beginning of my mission to be answered 6months later in the middle of nowhere in Freeport, or that some of themore difficult things that have happened on my mission were weirdlyanswers to my prayers as well (be careful what you pray for am Iright). Anyways God is good, the church is true, you can become whoyou want to become if you will let God refine you, pray alwaysAmen!

🌽Sister Madsen🌽

Us and the kids!And our district leaders who interviewed them on the back porchWe are so white

We had an appointment with our investigator Tarrone who ended up beingway late because he forgot about the lesson and was on a walk when wecalled him which is normal because no one here has any concept oftime. So we just waited around on his front porch that had weirdamount of chairs and books and other nonsense that nobody seems tosteal. And then He came .and the lesson was good and he said he wouldbe baptized so it all works out

Illinois has the best clouds and the best sunsets for real.Also some things I forgot:I don't think I mentioned it but I have literally wanted to go toFreeport since I heard about it my first transfer because it is justso cool and crazy and now I'm here and I'm so happy and I JUST BELONGHERE OKOur apartment is a three story townhouse castle,Kay, the investigator from my last area is still doing good, othermissionaries are teaching him now and he really wants to find thetruth! Gahhhh he's great I'm so jealous that other people get to teachhim because he is GOLDENThere is a couple streets that we "aren't allowed" to go on bc GANGS

Because of emergency transfers I got to crash on sister turnersexchange and got to go on exchanges with sister Davis AGAIN. It wasgreat, she is awesome, I'm glad I got to see her again before she goeshome.And everyone at the food pantry we went to was giving us all sorts ofnonsense because "oh there's three of you now!" And they nicknamed ushear no evil speak no evil see no evil so it had to be documented. Andwe all just decided to wear buns bc sister missionary. And I look likean idiot in every picture but I've accepted it and embrace it